First off, Welcome Welcome to the first ever Simplifying Christmas meme! To find out what it's all about CLICK HERE and have some fun participating! :) And remember, every time you sign the McLinky at the bottom of this post and share a link to your blog about Simplifying Christmas you can enter to win........
Drum roll Please.......
A Simple pampering basket for you to pamper yourself with after Christmas is over. :)Included in the Basket is:
A Brand New copy of Debi Pearl's Fiction Book "The Vision" (Very good read!)
A new 2010 day-planner covered by me ;-) in designer quilter fabric
A pretty travel coffee cup in coordinating colors as your new day planner
A sample package of Gheradelli Carmel coffee
and
A bottle of Peppermint foot lotion
So! Let's get busy and have some fun!
Today's Topic is about Simplifying our Budgets and Gift Lists.
I have heard so much on "how" to do this. But it eludes me almost every year. I either feel guilty for cutting down my guest list, or for spending too much!
We have a lot of extended family. And even "cheap" $5.00 gifts adds up pretty quickly. Try about $120 dollars. That's $120 that could of gone towards my own kid's Christmas.... Does that sound selfish?
This year's budget for my kid's is $150 for all three of them. So in essence I am spending $30 more on my own kids than the extended family.
My husband isn't even included in that budget.
One hundred and fifty dollars is quite a bit of money during these times. Then to spend $120 more on top of that; it is $270! Wowzers!
Every year we hear the same story on blogs, in Facebook statuses, articles, chain emails, yada yada yada, "Christmas isn't about gifts, it's about Jesus' birth, and spending time with family!"
But every year if you don't get something for someone, you may end up wondering if they will be mad at you for the rest of your life because they got you something, and you didn't get them something?
I like the idea of giving cookies to neighbors. But for some reason cookies just doesn't seem like enough for close friends and family. Does it?
So, still I am in a delima. I think I came up with a solution to this years crisis. I am going to make some gifts that cost about $1.00-2.00 a piece to make. But that does add up too.
And don't get me wrong, I am all for giving more than receiving. But one shouldn't go into debt over Christmas, right? And what about those that have a hard time giving? Should we make them feel bad if they can't give a gift?
So.... I want to hear how everyone is handling your budgets and gift lists this year? Please write. I can't wait to see. :)
So! Get to writing! And then sign the McLinky!
Ps. The goodie Basket above, cost me about $4.00. No joke! ;-)
8 comments:
What a great idea Heather... and I completely know what you mean about "little" gifts adding up. I struggle with that every year. It's hard to even find something appropriate for some folks for under $25-30, and yipes! That is wayy too much for me to spend! I will be looking forward to reading some of the others' ideas☺
Beautiful layout, btw♥
Let's try this again and hope it works for me this time!
My oldest daughter needs to learn about simplifying Christmas! She wants EVERYTHING she sees on TV. We have a very limited budget this year and I have been trying to instill in her a heart of giving instead of getting. I have been purchasing small items for the kids throughout the year when things are on clearance and so I have been able to put a few things away for them. Other than those few things I already have I am thinking craft stuff since they are all about coloring, gluing, cutting, glittering and anything else that can make a huge mess!
Well, you know our situation this year Heather. Honestly, we really cannot afford to buy any gifts. Not kidding. But I have two plans right now: 1) Go to the dollar store. 2) Wait and see if anyone (family, etc) sends us money for Christmas, and if they do, then perhaps use that to buy some gifts (if we get the money early enough that is:)
We decided many years ago that we are not giving gifts to anyone else other than our kids. Now, our kids are making Christmas gifts for their grandparents, and everyone gets a Christmas card with pics of the kids. But, we just told our family members that we're not purchasing presents - we're just happy to be spending the holiday with them. We also ask that they take any money they would spend on us and spend it on the kids. We did have a few uncomfortable moments the first year we did this, but everyone figured it out by year three. Make my life so much easier - kids love making gifts for the family (cards and such) and I don't stress about what to buy my mother-in-law who already has everything that she needs or wants.
This is so much fun:) Thanks
Heather, can you tell me what the code is for your button. I don't see it anywhere.
I have figured out that planning is what I need to do to decrease my spending.
This year Ive done pretty good-except for my kids-I really struggle still with them....
We only have one child, so that helps for us but she only gets 3 presents (Baby Jesus only got three). She shops at the Elves Shelves ($1-$3 gifts) at school for the grandparents and that is it for extended family. We do one family gift as well. DH and I don't usually do gifts because we buy what we want/need throughout the year.
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